Williamsport Garden Club Blooming since 1956

By SHIRLEY BOATMAN West Branch Life

It was spring 2022 when the Williamsport Garden Club (WGC) approached the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and asked if they could spruce up the ornate brick newspaper building’s front entrance at Hepburn and Fourthstreets in downtown Williamsport with their members’ talents

Two planters had held a dying bush. Once the WGC filled the planters with beautiful blooms, the transformation was impactful Visitors and employees are now greeted year-round by arrangements complementing the building’s vibrant architecture

And that is just one way the awardwinning WGC has beautified our community for almost 70 years.

“To acquire knowledge in the cultivation of gardening and arranging flowers and for the interest of community betterment” was the WGC’s founding credo when Bert and Harold Hill, both florists and husband and wife, organized The Williamsport Garden Club in June 1956

It was 10 years later when Sandra Hoyt attempted to join the club but was placed on a one-year waiting list

Today, Hoyt is the club’s parliamentarian She says, “Back in the 1960’s, the membership held at 130. Today we hold around 30 members and men are welcome We currently have one and he has served as president ”

The WGC gives back to the area in so many ways. Scholarship monies have been granted to Penn College horticulture students; plantings are done in Brandon Park and Ways Garden, and the club supports Victorian Christmas’ fundraising efforts by donating flowers to the Rowley House Museum in Williamsport for the annual event

Several events have become customs for the WGC. A Spring Tea at the Penn College Career Development Center is held annually Keith Phelps, from WNEP’s “Home & Backyard,” serves as speaker, also providing entertainment

Last spring’s attendance was 85. The Club begins preparing an entry in July for the Bloomsburg Fair in September.

Hoyt reports, “It is fun and challenging [Last] year the theme was Musical Menagerie, which involved a mantle, table, two pedestals and a door, with colors and flowers flowing in coordination ”

They began entering their floral designs in 1983 at the Bloomsburg Fair

Current club president is Darlene Melfi, whose contagious enthusiasm is noted as a blessing, as is her encouragement to try new things

Melfi states her motto, “Keep your hands digging into this beautiful black gold called dirt and enjoy what you planted ”

Additional officers are Jim Lewis, first vice-president; Diane Brown, second vice-president; Florence Moser, recording secretary; Shirley Springman, corresponding secretary; Heidi Healeig, treasurer, and parliamentarians, Sandra Hoyt and Joan Bauder, who are both 50plus-year members.

Melfi shares the subject of some of the 11 monthly WGC meetings to be held throughout 2023, including “Hummingbirds; How to make a Spring

Grapevine Wreath; Gardening in Small Spaces; How to grow Dahlias; and the Double Life of Culinary Herbs,” among others

The program for the meetings includes a featured flower for the month and a quote concerning nature For instance, July’s flower is the Gerbera Daisy, representing purity, cheerfulness and innocence. May’s chosen quotation is, “It is spring again The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart,” by Rainir Maria Rilke

Have an interest in joining the club? Contact Melfi at 570-322-0807 or Sandra Hoyt at 570-368-3640